Geeks - A moment of your time please...PC Building

[LostThePlot]

I'm at the time now where an upgrade is due, as I want to be able to handle full HD film editing, and to have my lightroom/photoshop work process a little quicker, with now having 3x the mPixels I had when I bought this machine.

Now, I've put together 4 of my PC's in the past, but back then I had my finger on the pulse of what's best in terms of CPU AMD V Intel and all the associated geekery that goes with it.

So, question is this. I've a budget of ?450-500, and ideally just want a box I can plug in and go with, or at most install a HDD. BUT, if I get more bang for my bucks, I'm happy to plug it all together and do the work myself.

i7 seems to be the latest baby out there, so maybe just a Mobo/Cpu/Fan/Graphics Card combo into my existing case and away I go?

I'm currently running an Athlon 2.2mhz socket 949 with 3Gb DDR400 RAM, and a NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT. I'm guess this is end of life now.

So, what would you suggest as the best upgrade path, ideally reusing that memory if I can? Some of the "Mix IT" on http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/ seem sensible...are they?

LTP

[bigbadwolf]

Consult the oracle.

http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/profile.php?20,186

[mockney piers]

I can personally vouch for the i7 it's an awesome chip, 4 hyperthreaded cores it really dies shift and you'll need a nit of

that for intensive processing in those big files.

You will need a new motherboard which has to work on a six memory slot configuration and most providers seem to be insisting on DDR3 memory, so out with the old.

Good news us putting it together yourself I reckon you can do it on a fairly decent budget.

Good article here for you

http://techreport.com/articles.x/15816

[LostThePlot]

Dell seem to have a good offer on for ?700 or so you get a rig with 6Gb ram and ready to roll, also comes with a 20" widescreen, which I'll be flogging on here, so form an orderly queue. Maybe time to splash the cash...

Still, it'll be antiquated in 5 years time...progress eh!

Anyone else care to comment?

[iaineasy]

I got an IBM think pad x60s with dual core for ?500 and it runs several of my cs4 master suite programs together and begs for more! I am not that much of a geek though to know if this is good enough for you. Got it from fuzzy nik at 100% complete on croydon road norwood . pm me if you want his number hes is the geek of the week though and well worth a chat with.

hugs

[matty]

As we don't get Newegg over here, nor Bic-Camera, in my experience, Yoyotech are your best bet for service and price, and after-sales trouble shooting. They do a reserve via web and pick up in store, where you pay a percentage on-line, and the rest in store for web prices, erm, in store. Speak to Gangster there, nice sikh bloke with glasses, if you wield cash in your hand, he can save you a LOT of money, well he saved me a few hundred last time I went mad in there.

I7 does seem to run rather hot, so be sure to get a nice PSU, and even consider some water cooling for it, the new AMD chips, as usual run a fair bit cooler, and are that much cheaper.

As for video editing, despite being a die hard pc builder, and I really hate the no-brains OS, after you've used Final Cut Pro, I doubt you'll ever want to edit video on a pc ever again, its just painful [that old Motion studio with the funky control was just about bearable I suppose].

Search around, you may well be able to recycle some of your old parts and build a "hackintosh"....Best of both worlds then.

Have fun building, and post a pic of your internal set up here when done, nothing like a nice bit of silicon-porn to start the morning...

Edit: "Still, it'll be antiquated in 5 years time" - don't you mean 3 months?

[LostThePlot]

matty Wrote:

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> As we don't get Newegg over here, nor Bic-Camera,

> in my experience, Yoyotech are your best bet for

> service and price, and after-sales trouble

> shooting.

Cheers Matty, I think I'll take a wander up town with a wad...see what happens.

Yes, have been considering the Hackintosh option too, to give the OS a whirl, silicon-porn will be posted in due course...

[mockney piers]

I got the selfsame Studio XPS. It really is quite swift though haven't done anything to really challenge it so fat hasn't had to break a sweat. It runs ARMA II without batting an eyelid.

Have to replace my 'borrowed from work' Adobe suite which I'm going to have to fork out for tuis time as no longer work at a media company full of graetful techs when I write them dedicated software or reports.

[mockney piers]

I hope I'm not hijacking this tread but while were on the topic of photography loving geeks putting DIY things together on very low budgets...

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/the-150-space-camera-mit-students-beat-nasa-on-beer-money-budget/

[HAL9000]

If you have a specific config you'd like to check out there are several custom build manufacturer's web sites that can provide quotes for comparison purposes.

I received this via email recently. I don't know if it's of interest but it's the spec and retail price of a recent i7 desktop tower offer from my supplier:

Base spec:

Intel? Core? i7 Processor I7-920

3GB DDR3 Memory

320GB Hard Drive

22x DVD-RW

Weight: 5 kg

Standard Features:

ATX Cases: ASUS ATX Case TA-250

LGA 1366 Motherboard: ASUS ATX Mainboard P6T

Power Supplies: Power Supply 500W OCZ StealthXStream

Intel Socket 1366 (Core? i7): Intel? Core? i7 Processor I7-920

DDR3 Memory: OCZ DDR3 1333MHZ 3GB KIT (3x1GB)

SATA-2 Harddrives: 3.5" HD SATA2 320GB 7200RPM 8MB Cache

Optical Drives: SAMSUNG DVD?RW SATA 22x OEM DRIVE ONLY (Black)

PCI Express Graphics Cards: ASUS Graphic Card ATi EAH3450/DI/256M

Warranty Options: Standard Warranty (3 Year Return To Base)

Price (ex vat): ?603.82

Product Details:

Powered by Intel? Core? i7 Processor Technology this Workstation PC provides the computing power and storage options to handle the most demanding tasks. Ideal for Audio/Visual, 3D/CAD, Digital Photography and Database useage these PCs are aimed at those who need maximum power to get the job done.

[bigbadwolf]

Is that tech speak for "I've got a bigger dick" Hal?

[mockney piers]

It's not his BBW, he's just forwarding on info.

In my experience don't attempt anything in Vista with less than 4gb of ram.

With windows 7 coming up you can take advantage of more ram.

I went 6gb which should future proof me for the requisite 23 and a half minutes before your new pcis completely obsolete.

[HAL9000]

mockney piers Wrote:

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> In my experience don't attempt anything in Vista

> with less than 4gb of ram.

For home use, I bought an dual 3.2GHz CPU machine a few months ago with 4GB RAM installed but decided to stick with XP-32 which can access 3 and a bit of that. I've got a beta XP-64 installed on dual boot that can address all of it, apparently.

You can never have too much RAM.

I'll probably skip Vista altogether - sounds like a bit of a nightmare - and go straight to Win7.

[EDKiwi]

mockney piers Wrote:

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> I hope I'm not hijacking this tread but while were

> on the topic of photography loving geeks putting

> DIY things together on very low budgets...

> http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/the-150-spa

> ce-camera-mit-students-beat-nasa-on-beer-money-bud

> get/

That's pretty cool, maybe we should launch an East Dulwich one.....just tell everyone to stay indoors until it 'lands' :)

[*Bob*]

My suggestion?

Seeing as I'm in the market for a good old moan and this seems to be as good a place as any, I bought my first 'PC' (a laptop) a few weeks ago, after 15 years of Macs, for non-work pottering. How bad could it be?

It was shite! Fresh out of the box - it was glitchy, annoying - and promptly returned.

Apple - forgive me, for I have sinned. It won't happen again.

[LostThePlot]

HAL9000 Wrote:

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> I'll probably skip Vista altogether - sounds like

> a bit of a nightmare - and go straight to Win7.

I have pondered this, but it seems to include a XP Replicator (Or some such term" To allow you to run your old XP programmes...

That puts the fear of god into me! BUT will XP Pro get the most from a new PC....Or will an upgrade just cost me more in needing newer software?

[mockney piers]

Skip pro, cannot take advantage of a 64 bit chipsets or much ram.

I've found vista to be fine on most thing though vista 64bit is a bit fussy on programs it can run.

Alot of offers come with offer of a free upgrade to win7 which by all accounts is much better

[LostThePlot]

An update....

Old PC took the huff of all this talk of a new machine in my life, thankfully the EeePC is not so fickle. Anhow, went into town and visited the store Matty recommended, so have sittingnext to me an i5 2.66Ghz machine, with 4 Gb ram, and a 1Gb video card...

Tried to install XP fromthe original disc, and get an error. A quick google explains it as an issue with PCI-E card needing a new CD with XP/SP2 slipstreamed into it: http://www.theeldergeek.com/slipstreamed_xpsp2_cd.htm

SO.... for a bottle of wine or two, is there anyone out there able to do this for me please as I don't have access to another PC to do this, and can bring around the XP CD. Unless anyone knows of or has an SP2 verion I can use to install, and then I'll use my own CD KEY (I can prove I have this).

PM if you can help please!

I'm going to try booting with knoppix in the meanntine, but then....I'm still no further forward am I!!!! AaAArGHHH!!!!

[LostThePlot]

UPDATE----Looking for my Linux disc, I have found a copy of XP with SP2 on it... installing as we speak!!!!

Silicon-porn to follow soon.... ;-)

[matty]

Sweet!

How did you find the staff there?

Also, you probably know this, but if you want to install XP onto a SATA drive, those drivers usually need slipstreaming, or be accessible via a thumb drive put into floppy mode.

Hope you have fun with the new beast

[woofmarkthedog]

*Bob* Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> My suggestion?

>

> http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/file.php?2

> 0,file=6500

>

> Seeing as I'm in the market for a good old moan

> and this seems to be as good a place as any, I

> bought my first 'PC' (a laptop) a few weeks ago,

> after 15 years of Macs, for non-work pottering.

> How bad could it be?

>

> It was shite! Fresh out of the box - it was

> glitchy, annoying - and promptly returned.

>

> Apple - forgive me, for I have sinned. It won't

> happen again.

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Yes, though they will not listen, deafened by endless streams of PC white noise, like ordering fish & chips from a trawler in a storm.

Ram, spam, jam ohh......whatever, we're Ok *Bob* leave them now, Noah's waiting to slip the mooring and the rain's getting worse.

Bye.........bye bye.

W**F

[mockney piers]

Is eric cantona a house guest currently woof? Remember. 'password' is not a safe password for your account.

[woofmarkthedog]

mockney piers Wrote:

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> Is eric cantona a house guest currently woof?

> Remember. 'password' is not a safe password for

> your account.

--------------------------------------------------------

I will change it to assword now, is that better.

Pm me if you approve please

[woofmarkthedog]

mockney piers Wrote:

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> Is eric cantona a house guest currently woof?

> Remember. 'password' is not a safe password for

> your account.

---------------------------------------------------------

Mockers, was that you looking through my window earlier ?

Oh you cyber villain you.

W**F